Guys' Night
by konggodamera
Summary: It's a tradition: the guys get together for some drinks and talk about whatever crosses their minds. A weird, rambling oneshot about Zuko, Sokka, Haru, and Teo hanging out and being bros. Ah, these guys. Mentioned Zutara & Sukka.


Guys' Night

"One, two, three… GO!" Sokka shouted.

Zuko and Haru's arms tensed up immediately as both teenagers sought to catch each other at a disadvantage.

It was a deadlock for several long seconds, then, slowly, Zuko gained the upper hand.

Haru's knuckles slowly, but surely, inched towards the table top.

Sokka cheered while Teo cried out in dismay.

Haru sucked in a deep breath of air, and cranked his arm back up.

"YEAH! HARU!

"C'mon, Zuko! You had him on the ropes!"

Haru's second wind only got him so far, before Zuko tightened his grip and adjusted his arm, and brought the back of Haru's hand crashing down onto the table.

Sokka jumped up and down whooping, before stopping and holding out his hand to Teo, "A-hem!"

Teo shot Sokka a glare to rival one of Zuko's death-glares before pulling out a few copper pieces and slapping them into the tribesman's hand.

"Thaaaaaank you!" Sokka said smugly.

Haru meanwhile, was massaging his hand, grinning at Zuko, "You know, Zuko, you're a cool guy."

Zuko rolled his eyes at him, but chuckled nonetheless, "Thanks, Haru." He turned towards the tribesman and North Airlander, "Are you two going to take a turn?"

Teo smiled, but shook his head, "Nah. These hands are better for tinkering, not for fighting."

Sokka looked at him, "Dude it's _armwrestling_. It's not fighting."

"It's called 'wrestling' isn't it?"

"Coward." Sokka muttered. Teo narrowed his eyes at him.

"I wouldn't say 'coward', Sokka," Zuko said. Teo was about to thank him, when he kept talking, "My Uncle says its wisdom to avoid fights you know you cannot win."

Teo folded his arms, "I hate you guys."

The "Guys' Nights", as Sokka called them, had been going on for about a month- every other night- ever since Zuko and Sokka had returned from the Boiling Rock as actual friends, rather than begrudging allies. They had been initiated by Sokka, who, having grown up without any male friends his age, had wanted to spend time with the other "Men" in the temple. Of course, Hakoda, Aang, and even Chit Sang had been asked to hang out too, but all declined for various reasons. Hakoda and Chit Sang because they felt they would be out of place hanging out with teenagers, and Aang, well, Aang didn't approve of the fire brandy (found on-board the stolen airship) Sokka had decided was the drink of choice for the hang-outs. What could he say? He was a monk.

So it became an odd bunch that hung out to unsightly hours. A "comedian" tribesman warrior, a mustachioed earthbender, a sort-of-air nomad inventor, and the exiled Fire Prince. They fell into a pretty regular routine; a few rounds of fire brandy while they talked about their day, do some random nonsense (armwrestling, thumb-wrestling, whittling, soap-carving (boy was Katara _not_ happy with how they just hacked the soap supply to pieces) or really just anything to keep busy) more brandy, then they would usually just laze around for a while, talking about whatever crossed their minds.

Things had only stalled for a few days after being chased out of the temple by Azula. Between that, and Zuko vanishing for two days with Katara for their "field-trip", the Guys' Nights resumed after three days, now Ember Island.

Currently, the four friends were in Zuko's room, the prince himself and Haru were sat at a small table, Sokka was perched on the footboard of Zuko's bed, and Teo was parked next to the window. Having been born and raised in the far north, he still found the tropics ceaselessly interesting to look at. If someone was looking for him, chances were that he was either outside or looking outside.

Zuko took a swig of brandy from his glass and sunk into his seat. Haru performed a similar act, while Sokka fell backwards onto Zuko's bed, arms spread. Teo rested his head against the window and closed his eyes, the alcohol having affected him far faster than the others due to his much smaller body.

There were a few moments of comfortable silence, before Sokka spoke, "So… any of you guys ever have sex?"

Haru snorted, "If you're offering, that would be a 'no, thanks' from me."

"C'mon, you know what I meant."

Teo groaned, "Sokka, please, I was about to fall asleep."

"Haven't you and Suki been having sex? Why are you curious about our sex-lives?" Zuko asked.

"I dunno. I guess I'm just curious."

Teo snorted, eyes still closed, "Nothing to be curious about on my part. Girls aren't exactly attracted to a geeky inventor whose legs don't work."

"Don't be down on yourself Teo," Haru said, "I mean, who would've thought that a girl would be attracted to a lanky, idiotic, half-a-warrior like Sokka?"

"I resent that."

Teo smirked, and Haru continued speaking, "Anyway, for me at least, the answer is _yes_ , I have had sex before."

Sokka made a noise of interest, then said, "Who was she?"

"A girl from the village, about two weeks after you guys passed through. Things were actually going pretty good, but then the invasion force came a-calling and I haven't seen her in about two months."

"Shit. Sorry."

"Nah, man. It's okay. I mean, it was nice but… this was more important, y'know?"

For some reason, Yue's death passed through Sokka's mind, "Yeah, I know, man." He folded his hands behind his head, "What about you, Zuko?"

"Uh well, yeah, I have."

"Cool, with who? Your creepy ex-girlfriend?"

"Well… most recently, yeah."

There was a moment of silence and Sokka readjusted himself and sat up straight, disbelief emanating from him, and Haru turned to Zuko with a look of interest on his face.

Zuko turned crimson, "What? Is it that unlikely that I've been with multiple girls?"

"Well, I mean," Sokka said, scratching the back of his neck, "Considering how you've been acting for the past few weeks…"

"What do you mean?"

"He's talking about how you've been a hopeless, awkward doofus around Katara for the past few days." Teo said as he curled in on himself more, his eyes screwing tighter.

Zuko swung around to Sokka, who just looked kind of amused, "Dude, its fine. You're cool, one of my best friends. I wouldn't mind you getting together with Katara. You're kind of a jerkbender at times, but you're cool. You're not like Jet. Now he was a _real_ jerkbender."

"You knew _Jet_?"

" _You_ knew Jet?"

Haru blinked, "Who's Jet?"

Sokka answered first, "He was a 'Freedom Fighter' we met in the Earth Kingdom. But, really, he was just this vengeful asshole. The town he was intent on freeing was just a small Earth Kingdom town, with only a small Fire Nation military presence, and only a couple of Nationals actually living there. And by "freeing" I mean 'Trick Aang and Katara into using waterbending to fill a reservoir, then blow up the dam that was holding back the reservoir and destroying the town'. He was just so… manipulative, he played Aang and Katara like a flute. They believed _him_ over _me_ after he assaulted an old National man in the forest."

Zuko's good eye widened, "Wow, your experience with him is worse than mine. Uncle and I met him and two of his friends on a ferry to Ba Sing Se. I helped him steal some food- don't look at me like that, Sokka, I was still really troubled at that time- and then he offered a place with his 'Freedom Fighters'. I declined. Then, Uncle pulled the stupidest stunt ever, and reheated his tea after making a big deal about how it was cold. After that, Jet got obsessive, started following me all over the city, convinced I was a Fire Nation operative intent on bringing down the city. Eventually, he just attacked me- unprovoked- when I was working my waiter job at a tea shop. I held him off, the guards got there, heard he just attacked me, and dragged him off. Never saw the bastard again."

"Ohh!" Sokka exclaimed, " _That's_ why… okay, well, we met Jet again, in Ba Sing Se. We were looking for Appa, and Jet found us and said he would help out. But, you know, he's an asshole, so we weren't trusting him, and he was so shifty and stuff… well, long story short, we decided to trust him, but he had been mind-controlled by the Dai lee, fought us a bit, but got killed when he hesitated too long. It was… nasty. But, yeah."

Zuko grunted, "Good riddance."

"Dude."

"He was a manipulative, fanatic, jackass. If he was still alive, and the war ended, he would continue a terror campaign against the Fire Nation. Something in him was… broken. Wrong. No one wants to sacrifice a whole village of complete innocents to eliminate a small group of enemies without being messed up. He would've probably just killed me in my sleep if he was with you guys when I joined up, firebending master be damned."

"I… I guess. But don't let Katara hear you say that, she was really torn up that she couldn't save him."

"Hmph."

"She has a general 'saving people thing', it can be kind of annoying. She once held us up in a Fire Nation town to help the people there, and even destroy the factory that was polluting the river."

"That was her? Wow." Zuko nodded. "The Painted Lady, hmm… Aang told you I'm the blue spirit, right?"

"Huh?" Haru asked.

Sokka's eyes widened, "You were the Blue Spirit?"

"Yeah, I was the one who rescued him when he was captured by the Fire Nation."

"Oh- oh! Okay, I know what you're talking about. He only told us about that when you showed up at the temple. He didn't say anything about you being the Blue Spirit."

"Well, either way, I am." He did an exaggerated bow, "Blue Spirit; master thief, and spy, at your service."

Sokka grinned, "Cool."

There were a few seconds of silence, before Haru asked a question, his voice addled by exhaustion, "Hey, Zuko… have you ever killed anyone?"

"Yes."

"Uh…"

"No, I'm not going to tell you. I'm no where _near_ drunk enough to tell you. I hate killing people. I'll do it, if its necessary, but I don't like talking about it."

"Oh." Haru said, before resting his head on his arms.

"Hey, Zuko?"

"Yes, Sokka?"

"Is… is it bad that I wish I had gone with you and Katara? When you went to find Mom's killer, I mean."

"No."

"Huh?"

"No, its not bad. I'm more curious as to why you were opposed to Katara going in the first place."

"It's just… I wasn't like Katara, when it came to mom's death. I just kind of… pushed it to the back of my mind and never thought about it. Katara though, it ate at her for years, she barely ever stopped thinking about it. So, when she first said that you and her were going to track down this guy, I thought it was, well, stupid. But between you asking about it, and her telling me about Yon Rah, it just started bugging me more and more. I don't know if I would've killed him, or something… but I do wish I could've seen the fear in his eyes."

"That's natural Sokka. He did irreparable damage to your family. I feel the same way about my father. If I had the chance… I may not kill him, but I just want him to experience fear."

There was a minute of quiet, and Zuko took a drink and looked at the other two occupants of the room. Teo was drifting to sleep, and Haru had conked out in his seat. "Okay, Sokka, lets make a deal, I'll buy the next bottle of brandy if you get Haru to his room. I'll wheel Teo to his."

"Uh, sure."

Sokka nudged Haru to a semi-awake state, and herded the earthbender to his room. Zuko wheeled Teo into his room. He just started at the rigging that kept Teo in his seat and just shrugged as he realized the tinkerer has already fallen asleep. He would probably be fine sleeping in his chair for once.

Zuko staggered into his room and collapsed onto his bed.

And just like every night that the guys hung out, he couldn't help but consider himself lucky. Azula had always been the one with friends in their youth, Mai and Ty lee always were around her, and she had an ever changing group of peripheral friends around her. Zuko had always been alone, and, for a long time, felt like that was just fine.

Now? He couldn't imagine being the Fire lord and not having at least the occasional night were he kicked back, had a drink, and shot the breeze with his friends.

* * *

A/N: Yeah, not a super great ending, but hey, I wrote this on a whim, and kind just let it write itself (my usual MO when writing random one-shots).

Of course, this is AU, as Teo and Haru just left after The Western Air Temple, after three episodes of just being back ground extras to the main people (I've complained about this idea before, in my one-shot series _Vanguard_ ) which is heavily tied to what I felt was the biggest misstep of the series: keeping Zuko a villain after all that character development and hero-turn build-up in Season 2. If he went hero, then all of Zuko's bonding with the team stuff could've been the first half of season three (before Day of Black Sun, which would've gone differently, of course) then the second half- before Ember Island Players & Sozin's Comet- could've been the Boiling Rock break-in/out, and just getting to know our periphery character better.

So yeah, Teo and Haru join the main six to ember island. Hakoda and Chit Sang take the Duke aboard the airship and they leave that way. Just because I wanted an AU.

So I came up with the idea that these four dudes get together every other night or so and just drink and do bullshit and talk. Aang I feel is just too uppity to want to spend a night drinking and cursing, so he stays out of it. the Duke is too young, and Hakoda & Chit Sang are too old. And, y'know, its a _Guys'_ night, so the girls don't join up.

Yeah, Zutara got in here. whoops.

And, according to my original process (before the Story decided to go on and talk about Jet) I was going to include that Zuko's past experiences were with Jin (a one-night-stand which happens after their original Date, only a day before he moves to the upper ring), and Song (a truer one-night-stand, where he just does it with her, leaves her sleeping, steals the ostrich horse and leaves with Uncle). Yeah, kind of shitty, but Zuko wasn't exactly good with the emotions and stuff during season 2, _and_ I have this notion that the Fire Nation is actually pretty fine with hook-ups before marriage, because their element is all about passion and whatnot.

Jet, I know a lot of people like him, but its plainly obvious that Jet is a manipulative fanatic terrorist. I highly doubt he had actually changed his ways, he was in a city of Earthen people, of course he's not going to be a total maniac, he hates the Fire Nation. But, we clearly see that he is not far from how he was in the first season, as he stalks, obsesses over, and eventually attacks Zuko, who- for all intents and purposes- was just a random refugee whose uncle _might_ have firebended, _maybe_. Was Jet a "good guy" at the end for the Avatar, earthbender, and Water Tribe siblings? Yeah, I guess. Is it enough to make up for the attempted annihilation of a town of innocents and a few, largely innocuous soldiers? No.

I believe Zuko has killed multiple times in canon. He was wandering the world for three years, exploring a lot of Earth Kingdom-held land. He would've had too kill someone at some time.

I couldn't comprehend how… chill Sokka was about the prospect of finding his mother's killer. It isn't like Yon Rah accidentally ran over their mother or something, he just murdered her. How can you not at least want to _confront_ him? I understand it was so we could get some of that sweet, sweet Zuko/Katara interaction, but really, I can't understand how Sokka wanted Katara to leave Yon Rah alone, especially with the Water Tribe's emphasis on family, _and_ that a large amount of his hatred and distrust for the Fire Nation would've come from his mother's death.

Erm, yeah, working on the next chapter of _Vanguard_ , at the moment (check it out! It's cool! It's a Super Hero AU! This is self-promotion!). More of that, and any random one-shots that come to mind as well.

See ya.


End file.
